


A Little Fall of Rain

by myscribblingquill



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, First Meetings, Fluff, Plants, SO MUCH FLUFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-22
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-09 01:10:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10400382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myscribblingquill/pseuds/myscribblingquill
Summary: After the potted plant outside her apartment disappears Jesskia Pava finds that new plants keep appearing every day. At first Jess thinks it's funny but then she wonders who exactly is leaving all these plants?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For [ Nora ](http://divinetheta.tumblr.com/) because she reblogged a prompt list and I got inspired.

Jessika was having a interesting day. She didn’t want to dub it a bad day yet. It wasn’t over, so there was still time for some good things to happen. It wasn’t a horrifically awful day either. It was just interesting. Like most things in her life were these days.

She’d been hoping to spend a quiet evening at home pouring over some textbooks. Her supervisor was expecting to see some more direction in her research he’d said. Jess’ PhD in biochemical engineering was developing at a slow pace. She done preliminary research. She written down some results. Produced a few statistics but from there she was stuck. It wasn’t that she had a lack of vision, or that there was nothing to research. The problem she had was deciding which area to stick too.

That was part of the reason she’d dubbed her day interesting. It just so happened that her supervisor was also her boss. Jess had quickly applied for a teaching assistant job after completing her first year at Outer-Yavin University. Teaching wasn’t one of her passions, but it was easy enough to explain things she’d been taught year ago. Besides she didn’t do that much teaching. Her responsibilities lay in marking and grading the exams. Doctor Leons saw fit to give her classes surprise tests every few weeks, without warning either Jess or the students.

Jess had turned up to Leons office this morning expecting to be harassed about her research. She had an excuse all ready in her head. A bit of stuttering, a smile and she was sure Leons would leave her alone. Instead she got greeted with a smile and a large stack of papers.

“Sorry, Jess.” Leons had shrugged. “I guess it’ll give you a break from PhD work.”

It was typical that the one night she had been planning to be productive she’d been buried under a mountain of work. Jess couldn’t understand why Leons hadn’t transferred to the online test system. It would sure make her job easier. But then Leons was stuck in his ways.

She decided that it would be easier to take the papers home. The desk she had on campus wasn’t the most comfortable. It was crammed in a corner, with an old wooden chair and Jess was sure that if she put the pile of paper on it then the legs would give out. It would be better to grade the papers at home. A crappy film on in the background and a nice mug of coffee beside her and the papers would be easy to grade.

All that meant was that she had to get the papers home. Her apartment block was a few streets away. A ten minute walk that Jess normally enjoyed. When she moved to Yavin Jess had opted to leave her beloved scooter at home. Almost everywhere was within walking distance and there was a high risk of it getting stolen. Even though she missed the ease of just hopping on her bike, she felt a little better knowing that it was safe in her parents garage.

To get the papers home Jess decided to opt for the ‘stuff them in her bag’ method. It worked for the most part. There was a few sheets which she had to carry and a few that she had to run down the street after. Nothing too disastrous. Now if she could get up to her apartment without any mishaps, today could be dubbed an okay day.

As she was punching in the code for the building her phone pinged. A few flights of stairs and she swung open her apartment door. The three bedroom apartment she shared with Poe and Snap was kept in adequate condition by the three of them. That was to say, they tried to kept milk in the fridge, they did have rule against leaving shoes in the hallway and when the pile of dishes got too high someone would eventually clean them. Jess took a step forward, kicking a pair of Poe’s shoes out the way. None of them were too good at sticking to the rules they’d made.

With the stack of papers dumped on the small kitchen table, Jess started to coffee brewing and pulled out her phone. The text was from Poe.

‘I’m going shopping. Do you need anything?’

‘Coffee beans? Some sleep. An idea for my research.’ She could feel the eye-roll Poe would do when he read it.

Jess stuffed her phone back into her pocket and grabbed the watering-can on the kitchen window sill. It was still filled without water so she walked over to the front door.

Just outside their front door, there was a window with a little ledge. When Poe had first invited Jess and Snap to move in after his previous flatmates had moved out, they’d tried to keep an illusion of cleanliness. Eventually though, after a few days, they gave up. 

Poe however didn’t like the idea that they should be conforming to the ideal of untidy college students. That’s when he’d started with the potted plants. It was a nice idea. Keep a few plants around the flat and they’d look like they knew how to look after them. Unfortunately for them, the idea didn’t work. The first three plants Poe brought died. He blamed it on Snap and Jess who had both forgotten that they were supposed to be watering the plant before it’s early demise. That was when Poe moved the plant out of the apartment into the hall. He reasoned that if everyone could see their failure as gardeners then they’d be more likely to remember to water it. So far his plan was working. The plant was still alive after two months.

Jess took the few steps out of the door to the plant. She was quite proud of herself. The soil wasn’t bone-dry, the plant looked relatively healthy. Jess wasn’t sure what type of plant it was. If she was asked to describe it she would have said ‘green with leaves’. But at least she’d remembered to water it.

Her eyes settled on the empty window ledge. The very empty window ledge without a plant in sight.

“What the hell?” she muttered to herself. She took a step forward and peered forward just to check she hadn’t missed it.

The plant was gone. There wasn’t even a trace it had been there. Jess took a step back. Maybe she’d imagine it the whole time.

‘The plant is gone.’ she sent a text to Poe.

The reply came a few minutes later. 

‘What do you mean? Did you kill it again?’

‘No, it’s just gone.’

‘Jess, it’s ok if you killed it’

‘I didn’t kill it. It’s gone.’

‘Like gone, gone?’

‘Like someone stole it gone’

‘Who’d want to steal a plant?’

‘A really enthusiastic botanist?’

‘I don’t think botanists steal plants’

‘Could’ve been a poor botanist’

Jess pushed her phone away. Poe might not believe that she hadn’t killed the plant but it wasn’t there anymore. She distinctly remembered seeing it that morning. She’d even made a mental note to water it. Much good that was. She couldn’t water a plant that had disappeared. Jess shook her head. There much much point worrying about it till Poe got home.She had papers to grade and they wouldn’t get done if she sat thinking about a missing plant.

By the next morning Jess had forgotten all about the plant. She told Poe what had happened, he hadn’t fully believed her so there was nothing else to do. Wedge had said he’d seen it in the morning when he’d left too. There was little point in worrying about it so Jess went about her normal routine. She got up later than her alarm. She smiled at the cute girl that lived in her apartment building, getting a half smile and a blush back.

The majority of her day was spent trying to wrangle words onto a document. At least it was spent trying to wrangle them into a coherent form. She had a burst of inspiration in the morning but it waned as the afternoon passed. At three o’clock she gave up. 

Her walk home passed in a daze and she was traipsing up the stairs before she realised. It wasn’t until she got her key in the door that she noticed the window ledge. 

It had been filled with plants. 

Jess blinked a few times. The plants didn’t disappear. She guessed there were about five or six. The ledge wasn’t big enough to fit anymore.

“Snap? Poe?” Jess called as she shook her shoes off.

A grunt came from the sofa. 

“Have you seen the plants?”

Snap’s face popped up. His hair was sticking up in all directions and Jess could see a pen mark across his left temple.

“I thought you killed the plant?” he said.

Jess groaned. “I didn’t kill the plant. It disappeared. But that doesn’t matter now because we have a new one. Six new ones.”

Snap wrinkled his nose in confusion. 

“There are six plants out on the window ledge.” Jess said slowly. She knew that when Wedge was bogged down with calculations he didn’t tend to pay much attention to normal things, such as words or magically appearing plants.

He didn’t say anything. Jess sighed and went to pick up one of the plants. She waved it in front of Snap’s face. He jumped a little and his notepad thumped to the floor.

“Kriff, Jess!”

“See, new plants!” she held it up to the light. It was real enough but it’s leaves were thinner than the previous ones.

“I didn’t think Poe was that broken up by the loss of his plant. You didn’t have to buy a new one.”

“I didn’t.” Jess leaned forward so her nose was almost touching Snap. He stilled, and his eye-widened. “I think the person who took the plant brought them.”

“First of all who’d want to take a plant?”

Jess sighed. “I don’t know. But it’s gone.”

Snap didn’t look impressed by the plant so Jess left him alone. While he was doing his work she felt more encouraged to get on with her marking. 

A few hours later when Poe wandered through the door Jess pointed out their new window decorations to him.

“Oh I hadn’t noticed.” his eyes were skittish and Jess could see that he was failing to hide a grin.

The hickey on his neck was obvious enough that he knew she could see it. Instead of teasing him about it and groaning as he told her every detail, Jess opted to keep the conversation focus on plants. It was a very tricky task. Poe wasn’t paying any attention. He hummed, and nodded alone. He keep twirling his phone around in his hand. Jess was tempted to take it off him so he couldn’t keep checking it every other minute. Snap didn’t even show any interest.

“If neither of you two care where these plants are appearing from I’m going to bed.” she declared. The plant she’d taken from the ledge was resting in her lap. It felt like abandonment to put it back out in the hall after spending time in its company.

Jess scanned her room looking for a suitable place for a plant.

“There ya go.” She placed it down of the corner of her desk. When the sun rose it would hopefully have enough sunlight. If she remembered to water it then it might even live for a while.

Over the next few day the plant situation escalated to a point where even Snap couldn’t ignore it. Jess had been amused to see pots appearing on the floor around their front door. It wasn’t getting to the point that if anymore arrived then they’d start going down the stairs.

“This is ridiculous.” Jess heard Snap exclaimed from outside the door.

The door opened to reveal a harassed looking Snap. He was scowling at the floor around him as if that would make the plants disappear.

“I told you.” Jess crooned as he shut the door. “The plant was stolen and now the thief is trying to repay us.”

“They’d better stop sometime soon.” Snap grumbled. “I’ve got nothing against nature but I’d like to be able to get to my front door without the obstacle course.”

Jess laughed. Snap wasn’t very amused by the whole situation. Jess thought it was rather funny. Whoever was delivering the plants must have felt guilty about the loss of the first one. 

For the next few days the number of plants didn’t seem to increase anymore. Jess hadn’t counted them so she wasn’t sure how many there were. She guessed about thirty or so. All of them look different. Some had pretty flowers and Jess was sure that one of them was actually a tree.

Poe had started to talk of getting rid of them. He didn’t want to aggravate the other residents and there was no way they would be able to keep even half of them. None of them own a greenhouse so they were at a bit of a loss for ways to dispose of their mini garden. Jess didn’t really want to see them go. When she saw the mass of green it brought a smile to her face. 

She was walking up the stairs thinking of the plants. The little one she’d taken into her room was still alive. She even remembered to water it that morning. Jess was so fixated on thinking about the plants that she hadn’t noticed the person stood by them.

Jess recognised her as one of the other residents that lived in the apartment block. This specific person was the one that Jess saw almost every morning. She always smiled and said hi. The other girl generally blushed and responded. This was the first time that Jess had properly seen her though. She hadn’t noticed Jess. She was focused on the mass of plants.

“Sorry about then.” Jess said with an apologetic smile. “Someone keeps delivering them.”

The girl turned around. Her face was bright red, eyes wide. She looked a little panicked.

“Don’t worry we’ll get rid of them soon.” Jess assured her. 

“Oh I um.” the girl said. She clamped her bottom lip between her teeth. Jess forced herself to look anywhere other than the girl’s lips. Her eyes caught on what was in her hands instead. A potted plant.

“Wait a minute.” Jess took a small step forward. “Are you the one -”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. It just sort of happened. I was bringing the blowtorch down from my apartment and I wanted to look at the plant. It was actually kinda cute -” the girl took a breath, shrugged and continued before Jess could get a word in. “And then there was fire and I just…” she pointed at the window ledge. “I didn’t know what type of plant it was.”

Jess’s laughter bubbled out her. She crouched over and tried to control her breathing.

“I really am sorry.” the girl said again.

Jess stood up. “I know.” she pointed at the plants. The girl looked mortified. “My flatmates are never going to believe this.”

“I can get rid of them all. I just didn’t want you to think that I’d kill someone’s plant and then not pay them back.” 

“Hey don’t worry about it. Though we might need some help with plant removal.” Jess looked at the plants and giggled again. “The plant was my flatmate Poe’s idea. It really isn’t that much of a big deal but thanks for the mini garden.”

The girl giggled and covered her face with her hand. The potted plant she was holding had somehow made it way to the rest of the plants. 

“I guess I panicked a little.” she said sheepishly.

“I guess.” Jess smiled brightly at her. “I’m Jess by the way. I’ve seen you around haven’t I?”

“Yeah. You work at the uni.” The girl smiled back. “I’m Rey. I live upstairs.”

“Well Rey, I want to know exactly how you managed to destroy our plant.” Jess started picking her way through the plants. “Did I hear you say something about a blowtorch?”

Rey groaned. “Don’t ask about the blowtorch.”

“Oh well, now I’m intrigued.” she pushed the apartment door open and held it open for Rey. “Tell me all about this blowtorch.”

A few days later the plant situation was fixed. Poe had made them keep a few of the plants. He said it would be a waste to get rid of all of them. Jess still had her plant on her desk corner. She’d become fast friend with Rey after their first conversation. It amused Jess that she could get Rey to blush whenever she mentioned nature. 

It was something she was planning to use to her advantage. Jess had spent over an hour trying to pick out the right type of flowers to give to Rey. Apparently there was a language to flowers. Jess didn’t have a clue what it was so she’d just picked the prettiest ones that came in a pot.

“Breathe Jess.” she muttered to herself. She knocked on Rey’s door.

“Hello.” Rey smiled brightly as she swung the door open. Her eyes widen as Jess held the plant up.

“Considering that you brought us so many beautiful plants I thought I would get you one.” Jess said. She felt her cheeks burn as Rey blushed.

“You’re never letting this go are you?”

“Never. Though I might consider getting you proper flowers if you let me take you on a date?” Jess felt a twist in her stomach as she blurted the words out.

“Sorry I only like potted flowers.” Rey smirked. She took the plant from Jess hands. “But I loved to go on a date with you. Even if you bring me normal flowers.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey's POV of the plant incident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should rename this fic 'A Little Fall of _Rey_ '

“I killed your plant.”

Rey winced to herself. “I accidentally destroyed your plant.” she tried.

“I set your plant on fire so now it’s dead.” Rey said to the closed door. “That’s even worse.” she muttered.

“I should really knock.” she said to no one in particular. There was no one around luckily. If there was they’d think she was a bit odd, talking to herself about killing plants. The hallway was empty and Rey had never been more thankful for her random days off.

She was still stood in front of the door with a blackened plant in her hands. Rey wasn’t sure how exactly she was supposed to explain what happened. She thought through the explanation for a few more minutes. There was nothing else to do other than knock and see how the owner reacted.

Rey knocked and waited for answer. She couldn’t hear movement from inside so she tried again. A little louder this time. There was still no answer.

“They’re not home.” she told the door which remained closed.

The dead plant was still in her hands though. Rey stared down at it. Holding the charred plant was very incriminating evidence against her being plant murdered. Albeit she was an accidental plant murderer but she still felt that she should at least offer to buy the owner a new one. She wasn’t going to be able to do that without having met the owner though.

Rey had only lived in the apartment block for a few months. Her flatmate Finn had gone round to introduce himself to most of their neighbours. Rey had been able to get of being dragged around with him by hiding herself away at work. At the time it had been a smart idea. Now though she was regretting it a little, as she didn’t even know who lived in the flat.

She was still contemplating what to do about her current predicament the sound of footstep echoed up the stairs. Rey promptly panicked. She was already to explain herself to a shut door but the thought of confronting an angry plant owner scared her a little. Rey shoved the plant behind her and tried to look like she belonged in the corridor.

“Rey?” Finn questioned. He had just reached the hallway before their own flat so was a little surprised to see her there.

A wave of relief washed over Rey. It wasn’t anyone that would demand reparation for their lost plant. “Oh thank god. Finn, I need your help.”

Finn’s expression hardened and he took a step forward. “Whatever you need.”

“I killed someone’s plant.”

“You what?”

Rey held the plant up to him. “I killed,” she point at the plants charred remains. “Someone’s plant.”

“Oh,” Finn looked down at the plant a little confused. “I thought it was something worse.”

“What do you mean worse? What’s worse than killing a plant?” Rey exclaimed. “It’s dead Finn. Look. The plant is dead.”

“I can see that.” Finn’s lipped twitched. “You could just apologise and see what they say.”

Rey sighed and rolled her eyes at him. “Tried that. The owners are out.” she pointed towards the door.

“Oh,” was all Finn said in reply. Rey noticed that his gaze didn’t seem to settle on the door. His eyes just kept skirting over it as if he could avoid looking at it directly.

“Any idea who lives there?” Rey asked, expecting an outpouring of facts about the current occupants of flat 2B.

Finn didn’t offer any fact nor did he say anything. He just stood there and opened his mouth.

“Finn?”

“Not a clue.” He stumbled over the words a little. “No idea. Never met ‘em before.”

“Okay,” Rey said warily. Finn was acting a little strange. She’d never seen him clam up like that before. “So what do I do? I can just leave a dead plant on the window ledge it’ll look awful.”

Finn opened his mouth to reply but Rey continued talking. “I’ll have to get rid of the plant and then buy them a new one. No one will ever notice the difference.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to just leave them a note?” Finn suggested when he finally had the chance.

“Nah, this is a simpler solution.”

Finn’s raised eyebrows implied that he didn’t agree. He smiled and followed her lead as she started up the stairs to their apartment. Rey wasn’t exactly sure how to get rid of a plant so she chucked it in the bin. She couldn’t do any more for it now. The thing was dead. She saw to that when she’d burnt it to a crisp.

The next day Rey arrived at the nearest garden centre bright and early. She’d made sure to print of instruction to get there and back to her apartment. A few months earlier she had left the flat to get some milk and return five hours later without the milk. From that moment she had tried to make sure she either had directions to where she was going or she took someone with her. Rey had tried to drag Finn along but he’d vanished earlier than she was awake. An apologetic text had explained that he had some very important work to be doing and it couldn’t be avoided. Rey managed to find the place with a little help. She padlocked her bike on the railings outside. The gate was opened so she wandered in.

Rey had never had the experience of going to a garden centre before. There was a lot of plants scattered around. The amount of green was a little overwhelming. Rey chose to wander around for a little. She had no idea what type of plants she was looking for or where to look.

After almost half an hour of absent wandering Rey managed to stumble upon an aisle that contained houseplants. She sighed in relief. Rey was starting to suspect that she’d come to the wrong sort of garden center. 

Having found that correct type of plant she now had to decide which species of plant she’d destroyed the previous day. A surge of panic flooded through her. Rey realised that even though she’d been intending to look at the plant she’d killed it before she had been able to get a proper look at it.

“I don’t know what type of plant it was.” she whispered down her phone to Finn. Like in most situations when she couldn’t see an immediate solution she called Finn. He wasn’t always a lot of help. Finn was as clueless about living as an adult as Rey was. He was, however, useful as a sounding board. Rey could talk at him for ten minutes and he happily nod along. And he’d even occasionally provide her with some useful advice.

“A green one?” He said.

“Yeah but which type of green one?” she looked down the aisle that was filled with green plants. “There are lots of green plants.”

“I’m sure they won’t mind what type of plant you get them.”

“OK, what type do you think I should get? There are lots of types of leaves here.” Rey skimmed her hands over the nearest plants.

Finn sighed down the phone. “Whatever one’s you like. Chose one with some nice leaves.”

“There are lots of nice leaves.”

Rey started to compile a little collecting of plants to choose from. One she chose because it had some pretty little flowers starting to grow, another was added to the collection when she got poked by it.

“I can’t chose which one to get.” she’d been telling Finn about the plants she was choosing. As a result there was a lot of humming and sighing down the phone as Rey talked without a breath.

“Use eeny meeny miny moe.”

Rey started to put a few of the plants back on the shelf. Her pile of thirteen had significantly shrunk down to ten. Finn had been called away to do some actual work, so Rey was left to make the decision herself. She tried to reason that she should at least put two more plants back on the shelf. The ones with pretty flowers, that definitely weren’t on the plant she’d destroyed, went back on the shelves.

“Trying to decorate a little?” the cashier asked when Rey placed her final six plants down.

Rey nodded and hand over her money. With the plants in her safe keeping all she had to do now was get them onto the ledge. There was a chance that she’d run into the owners and she wasn’t looking forward to that awkward conversation.

She was trying to plan when to go downstairs to deliver the plants. There was a high likelihood that none of the residents of the building would be around during the day. Rey, herself had another day off, or she was supposed to be working from home. She was gambling on the fact that there would be no one else around.

The empty window ledge looked a little forlorn when Rey arrived downstairs with her delivery. She’d enjoyed seeing the little plant everyday. It was piece of nature inside, something Rey wasn’t used to. Growing up practically in the middle of the desert meant that she’d developed a special appreciation for plants. Also she just really liked the colour green. 

The plants didn’t all fit on the ledge easily. It took a few minutes of shuffling them around to make sure none of them would fall off. With her mission accomplished Rey snapped a picture and sent it off to Finn.

‘I fixed it’

‘Congrats, though it looks like you gave them more work!’ he sent back along with a picture of him poking his tongue out.

‘They can just get rid of the ones they don’t want’

‘True. So I was thinking chinese for tonight?’

‘I was going to go shopping, for some actual food.’

‘Chinese is food’ Finn quickly replied. ‘Also if you’re going to cook then please wait till I get home.’

Rey chucked her phone down on the sofa. Finn was referring to an incident that had taken place when Rey had tried to cook toast a few months earlier. In her defense the smoke that was created was the fault of the toast and no reflection of her cooking skill. Finn still enjoyed teasing her about it occasionally. And as Rey had taken it upon herself to try to learn some cooking skills, the opportunity for teasing presented itself too often.

Luckily for Rey neither the cooker or the hob decided to set anything on fire that evening. Finn had texted to say he would be late back from work. He was a little vague about why, considering that he wasn’t allowed to work pass 6 o’clock. Rey brushed it off though. It had been months since Finn’s injury and he had healed fine. 

When he arrived home Rey shouted him into the kitchen where his food was waiting. He joined her in their little dining area with his piping hot plate of lasagna.

“It’s good right?” Rey nodded at the food.

Finn’s mouth was already full of pasta so he just nodded and smiled around his fork. 

“I was looking at plants online” Rey said casually.

Finn’s forked stilled and he looked raised an eyebrow.

“I was just looking.” she protested. “I mean, there are lots of plant. I think I got the wrong one. And I found out that you can take a bit of one plant and it grows into another one. What if I killed a baby plant?”

“Rey, you didn’t.” Finn questioned when his mouth was empty.

“No, I might have.” Rey winced. She reached over to her laptop and slowly shut the lid. “It wasn’t intentional but I just wanted to make sure they got the right type of plant.”

“How many more?” Finn asked with a slight twitch of his lips.

“Umm,” Rey pulled out a piece of paper that contained her order recipe. “A few.”

Finn’s eyes widened as he skimmed down the list of plants. “You basically bought them a garden.”

“I can send them back.”

“A garden.” Finn laughed. “How did you even manage to order this many?”

“They had pretty pictures.”

“Oh my god,” Finn smiled at her. “You better go and introduce yourself to them after this is all over.”

“Oh yeah and how will that conversation go? Hi I’m the one that bought you a garden.”

Finn chuckled. “At least you’ll have made an impression.”

Rey sighed and flopped back on her chair. “I saw the cute stair girl again today.”

“Ohh, tell me more.” Finn shuffled his chair forward, eyes alight with amusement.

When they’d first moved into their flat, Rey and Finn hadn’t know anyone. Rey however claimed that she did know one of the girls that lived somewhere in their apartment building. Finn had dubbed her cute stair girl, after Rey had run into her a couple of times on the stairs. She had tried to have a conversation that was longer than hello but her tongue seemed to freeze every time.

“I saw her on campus this time.” Rey said. “I think she might work there. She’s not a student, or at least she’s not an undergraduate student.”

“You shoulda said hi.”

“I tried, but she looked really busy and I didn’t want to intrude, so I just left it.” Rey shrugged. She’d long accepted that she would be perfectly happy to admire cute stair girl from afar.

“Alright, well I’m sure she’s totally in love with you as well. I mean she does say hi to you all the time.”

Rey laughed and gave Finn a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for the encouragement. Now tell me about that hickey on your neck while we wash up.”

“Hickey, what?” Finn stuttered. His hand flew up to cover the offending mark as a blush spread across his cheeks.

“Oh yeah I noticed that.” Rey giggled. “Now spill!”

The next day Rey was waiting impatiently at the door for her plant delivery again. Finn had the day of work as he was supposed to be attending lectures in the afternoon. Rey was as well so she hoped that the delivery would arrive when it was supposed to. Finn was catching up on reading that had been left in favour of watching a movie late last night. He was majoring in political science and worked for the Organa’s. They were the local favoured political candidates. The whole campaign was a bit secretive but Rey had gleaned enough from Finn to know that they were likely to win.

“What if any of them see the plants being delivered?” Rey said allowed. She wasn’t expecting an answer from Finn. Her nerves were a little frazzled as it occurred to her that any of the plant owners could see the plants being delivered. That was part of the reason why Rey had them delivered to her flat. Then she could make sure they got downstairs without being seen.

“I’m sure they’ll just think there’s a crazy plant lady that’s moving in.” Finn said without looking up from him book.  
Rey was about to reply but a rap on the door interrupted her. She yanked the door open.

“I got a lot of plant downstairs. Where do you want them?” The delivery man asked when Rey had signed for them.

“Just bring them all up.”

“Are you sure?” he peered inside the flat. 

“Yeah. I’ll come down and help you.” She picked her keys up and shoved them into her back pocket.

It took them a little while to get all the plants moved. Rey hadn’t realised how big some of them would be. With the all inside their flat Rey had to shuffled between plants to find Finn on the sofa.

“Right, now we’ve got to get them downstairs.” she told him.

Finn turned around and noticed the plants for the first time. “Wow!” he laughed. “You really, umm. That’s a lot of plants.”

“Yeah.”

“How about we take a few down at a time?” Finn closed him book and put it down on one of the only empty spaces on the coffee table.

“That’s a good idea.” 

Rey chose a few of her favourites to drop off first. She arrange them neatly outside the door. The plants on the ledge were still there, although Rey thought there was one less than she’d bought. Their flat was still filled with a few too many plants but over the next few days the plants population decreased.

“I still can’t believe you bought that many plants.” Finn laughed after the last few had been dropped off. Rey found she could see that plants when she was walking up the stairs. She tried not to look at them or else she would started blushing and almost give herself away.

“Like I said it was an accident.”

“Alright but if you break anything of mine please just tell me.” he pleaded. 

“Nah, I’m just gonna buy you a replacement in ten different colours.”

“At least I’ll never run out!”

Finn’s phone made a noise and he smiled down at it. Happiness spread over his body and he relaxed into the sofa.

“Who was that?” Rey waggled her eyes at him.

He lightly nudged her legs with his feet and hugged his phone to his chest.

“Was that him?” Rey asked.

Rey had discovered that the reason Finn was coming home late wasn’t because work but because he was going out on a date. A very successfully date with a person who was now texting Finn almost constantly. Finn had refused to tell Rey who the man was but he couldn’t help himself from telling her about how much he liked them. Rey was happy for him. Neither of them had started a relationship with anyone in their first years at college. Finn, now a sophomore, had kept to himself a little in his freshman year. It was only by accident that Rey had become friends with him. She was a junior herself but the two had met through their jobs. Rey worked with Leia Organa’s brother, who’d introduced the two of them when she’d mentioned looking for flatmates.

“Yeah, he was just talking about one of his flatmates.”

“Oh, have you met them yet?” Rey asked.

“Not yet. I want to bring him round here at some point.” He looked over at her. “Is that ok? I think you’ll like him.”

“Yes I obviously want to meet him. I used to be the only one who could make you smile like that.”

Finn’s blush spread down his neck. He turned his face away from Rey to try and hide it. When that didn’t work he pressed play on the remote so her attention would be distracted by their TV show marathon.

With all the plants delivered Rey had stopped feeling so guilty about killing the first one. She did feel a little guilty about forcing a load of plants on her unsuspecting neighbours. It was rather amusing to see all the plants poking out onto the stairs every morning. A few days later Rey discovered that she’d missed one of the plants. She taken it into her room as she’d kept tripping over it. Since it was a week since the first plant had been destroyed, and a couple of day since the plants had been delivered, Rey was a little concerned it might need watering. She managed to scoop enough water into the pot to wet the soil.

“I left one of the plants in my room.” she told Finn after she’d found it.

“Don’t you think you should may give the poor people a break?”

“They’re already got thirty plants. What difference is one more going to make?” Rey smirked back.

When she got downstairs with the plant in her hand, she found that it made a lot of difference. When dropping off the plants Rey had been so concerned with not getting caught the she hadn’t paid much attention to how many there were. Now she noticed that there was mass of green covering the hallway. She was sure how they’d even managed to get out of their front door.

Rey stood by the edge of the pile and tried to see an empty space where she could fit the last plant in.

“Sorry about them,” a voice made Rey jumped. She turned around and found herself facing the cute stair girl. She started to aplogise for the plant. Rey tried to say something but she couldn’t find the words. That was when the other girl noticed the potted plant in Rey’s hands and she panicked. She blurted out a load of words. Rey wasn’t even sure if what she said made sense but the other girl started laughing. It was the type of laugh Rey could have listened to for hours. Genuine and bubbly, Rey would have started laughing with her if she wasn’t so embarrassed at being caught.

By the time Rey introduced herself to Jess, as she found out the girl's name was, she was ready to run away. But somehow she found herself inside Jess apartment without the plant which she’d left outside.

“So the blowtorch?” Jess prompted as she shut the door and gestured to Rey to take a seat.

“I was supposed to be taking it back to work. There was something wrong with it and I managed to fix it.” Rey started. “I just want to look at the plant and I guess I didn’t fix the blowtorch properly because -” she shrugged, “it set the plant on fire.”

Jess laughed again.

“I did try knocking on your door, but there was no answer.”

“We’re all out during the day. Poe and Snap are both at work and I’m normally on campus.” Jess explained. 

“Yeah I think I saw you last week actually.” Rey said. She was trying to slow her breathing in the hopes that it would also stop the blush on her cheeks from spreading.

Jess sat down on the sofa next to Rey and started undoing her shoelaces. “I work there. Sort of. I’m doing my PhD and I’m a TA as well.”

“Oh, that’s why you looked really stressed.”

“Probably. I’m still deciding on my research topic. What are you studying at O.Y.U?”

“No idea. I can’t seem to pick a major. Maybe engineering or mechanics.”

Jess’s eye lit up at the mention of engineering. “My PhD is in biochemical engineering so if you want any advice.” she smiled and raised her shoulders. “I’m happy to help.”

“Thanks, I might.” Rey tripped over the words a little.

“So about these plants?” Jess changed the topic.

Rey groaned at the mention. Now that she’d met Jess, she felt like a fool for not acting like a rational person and leaving the plant level at the six small ones.

“I can get rid of them.” she assured her.

“Good, but I want to keep the pointy one.” 

“Deal.” she shot a questioning look at Jess.

“Snap, one of my flatmates, keeps walking into it.” Jess explained. “He doesn’t always pay a lot of attention to his surroundings but that plant seems to like him a lot.”

Rey laughed. Jess started talking about her other flatmate Poe and how the three of them weren’t the greatest housekeepers. She was glad that she’d had run into Jess. Now she could call her something over than the cute stair girl. She told Finn as much that evening, along with a plea to him to come and help with the plant removal.

“I wish I could but I’ve got a date.” he said with a bright smile. He looked so happy that Rey couldn’t bring herself to be mad at him.

“Ok, but if I make a fool of myself in front of Jess you better be prepared to bring me lots of consolation ice cream.”

“I promise.” Finn gave her a hug and disappeared out the door.

She hadn’t been able to get the local garden centre to come and pick up the plants before the weekend. Since Rey had already paid for them all she decided to donate them to a local charity that went out and tended to elderly persons gardens. It was a cute idea and Rey was happy to help. That meant she wasn’t expecting to see Jess before them. Rey had forgotten that they lived in the same apartment building and it was likely they would run into each other.

Rey had been cycling through the heat as fast as she could. In hindsight it wasn’t a good idea. She was wearing heavy overalls, and cycling up a hill to get home meant she was covered in sweat. Rey felt disgusting. She couldn’t wait to get into a nice cold shower. 

She padlocked her bike and started to peal off the top of her overalls. She gotten one arm off when she heard a shout.

“Hey Rey,” Jess shouted from across the car park.

Rey froze. Her arm was half out of the sleeves, her hair was a mess pasted to her forehead and now she had to run into her crush. She almost hid behind the bike shed.

“Hey,” she replied as Jess walked over.

“How are you?” Jess asked, her eyes not looking directly at Rey who had managed to get her arm out of the sleeve.

“I’m ok. Very sweaty.” she gestured at herself. “I cycled home from work.”

“Oh,” Jess gulped as her eyes skimmed over Rey’s clothes. “Well, er, don’t worry about it.”

“Plant collection is tomorrow. So I’ll meet you at yours?” Rey asked. Jess didn’t seem to be paying a lot of attention. “At nine?”

Jess’ eyes were fixed on Rey’s shoulders. “Yeah nine should be fine.” she breathed.

Rey swiped a hand along her clavicle, conscious that she might have a bead of sweat dripping. Jess jumped a little as her eyes ran down Rey’s arms. Rey clenched her arm muscles.

“Um, I should probably go inside.” Rey started fiddling with her keys. “Finn was texting me about something. He sounded a bit frantic so I should check that he’s ok. I might need some ice cream to fix him but you know we always have a spare supply in the freezer.” Rey rambled.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” she spluttered and turned away taking a few steps before turning back. “And you look good. Don’t worry about being all sweaty.” Jess’ voice hitched on the word sweaty.

“See you.” Rey said and crossed the car park into the apartment block. It occurred to her that Jess had her keys in her hand as if she was just coming home. She hadn’t followed Rey inside though so she assumed that she was going out.

A shower and a few glasses of cold water later Rey felt less gross. She was trying not to dwell on her interaction with Jess. After all she couldn’t help it if she was sweaty after riding a bike. 

Finn hadn’t need any ice cream luckily. The problem had been course related and quickly solved. As a reward to themselves for surviving the week they’d decided to continue their TV marathon. Rey was just about to settle down on the sofa when there was a knock on the door.

“Hi,” Finn said as he opened it.

“This is Rey’s flat right?” Rey recognised Jess’ voice and jumped up from the sofa. 

“Jess, hi.” she said.

“You must be Finn. I’m Jess.” she held out a plastic bag. “I brought ice cream. I hope that’s ok?”

Finn and Rey exchanged a glance and then they both said: “Ice cream is always welcome.”

“Glad to hear it.” Jess smiled. “Now what are we watching?”

Rey’s eyes flicked over to Finn, then focused on Jess, “Have you seen The Get Down?”

“No.” Jess replied warily.

Finn sighed and walked over to the TV.

“Right, we’re watching it. It’s amazing.” Rey paused, with a very serious expression. “There’s singing.”

“Sign me up. Let’s get this marathon started!”

Finn shook his head at Rey but clicked play on remote. “She’s going to sing the whole way through. This is the third time we’ve watch it this month.”

Jess chuckled at Rey’s blush. Finn had claimed the small armchair for himself. That left the sofa or the floor. Jess flopped down onto the sofa. She curled into the corner leaving enough space for Rey. She was a lot calmer than she’d been a few hours earlier, and Rey noticed that they were making eye contact this time. Whatever had been bothering Jess in the car park wasn’t bothering her now.

“There’s nothing wrong with my singing.” Rey protested as she sat down on the floor. Jess scowled a little as she stretched her legs out.

“If it’s a musical then it’s almost a crime to not singing along.” Jess pointed out.

Rey turned round, smiling brightly. “See, Jess gets it.”

“If it was Disney then I’d sing. But I’m afraid I don’t know the words for The Get Down yet.” Finn said.

“Right well, shh. It’s starting.” Rey shushed him. 

Two episodes later, and their ice cream reserves were running low. Finn had paused the episode to get some more popcorn. Rey had stayed on the floor. She’d considered moving up onto the sofa but she was a little worried about being that close to Jess. They’d be at opposite ends of the sofa but Rey knew herself. When she got comfortable started to cuddle anyone within close range. If she was on the sofa with Jess and she got sleepy she’d end up cuddling her and Rey wasn’t sure she could handle that. 

“Hey, you can come up onto the sofa you know.” Jess leant down and whispered.

Rey could feel her breath across her neck. “I er, I’m ok.”

“Rey, you’re sat on the floor.”

“I know.”

“I won’t eat you, you know.”

Rey shifted to face Jess. She was sprawled out on the sofa again, her legs stretched out. Rey could see that her too big t-shirt had ridden up a little. 

Jess sat up and leaned towards Rey again. “We can snuggle.”

She tried to stop herself from blushing but Jess said it so nonchalantly that she could help herself. 

“Or we can not snuggle,” Jess continued, “It’s totally up to you.”

Rey considered for a moment. “How about, I sit on the sofa and we discuss the snuggling later?”

Jess smiled and moved her legs out the way so Rey could sit down. When Finn came back in his eyes caught on Rey sitting on the sofa. Her phone vibrated a few second later and when she checked it there was a text from him.

‘If you two are going to start making out please inform me so I can leave the room’

Rey didn’t respond but she did glare at him when she was sure Jess wasn’t looking.

‘But seriously get on with the snuggling or concentrate on the show.’

Rey didn’t respond to that text either but when she looked over at Finn he was watching the TV intently with a smug smile on his face.

They watched two more episodes and Rey found herself leaning against Jessika’s shoulder. Neither of them had moved but somehow they were curled up next to each other. Rey could see Jess’ chest moving softly, her breath ruffling Rey’s hair. She moved away slowly trying not to disturb her.

“Finn, where did we put the spare blankets?” she whispered, careful not to wake Jess.

He was half asleep himself but Finn pointed towards the bedrooms. “Cupboard.” he mumbled.

Rey grabbed the thickest blanket she could find. She tucked in round Jess, who stirred a little but pull the blanket closer.

“Night Jess.” she muttered. “Night Finn.”

“G’night.” Finn disappeared into his room and collapsed onto his bed from the sound of it.

Rey managed to find her way to her bed and fell asleep straight away. The next morning Jess had vanished from the sofa. The blanket was neatly folded and Rey had an unopened text on her phone.

‘See you soon for plant pickup. Thanks for the blanket.’

The pick up of the plants went off without a hitch. The charity was very grateful for the plants and found the story of Rey buying them all highly amusing. Rey had spent half the time blushing every time Jess mentioned plants. She was starting to suspect that the rest of her friendship with Jess would be littered with plant jokes.

Just that day she’d received a picture of one of the trees on campus from Jess. Rey had tried to not blush at the mention but Jess always laughed whenever she did so, so Rey didn’t really mind.

Rey was trying out some new recipes again. Finn had invited Jess and her two flatmates over for dinner at the weekend and Rey wanted to make sure she had something ready. The easily way to make sure of that was to practice, so Rey had gone for a big grocery shop.

A knock at the door sounded just a she had finished boiling the kettle. She pressed pause on the music that was blaring through the flat.

Opening the door she saw Jess and smiled brightly to greet her. Then Jess held up a cute little potted plant with red flowers. Rey’s cheeks flooded with colour.

“Considering that you brought us so many beautiful plants I thought I would get you one.” Jess said with a shy smile.

Rey giggled quietly and shook her head in embarrassment. “You’re never letting this go are you?”

“Never.” Jess looked away from Rey and focused on something within the flat. Rey could see her eyebrows squish together and she looked almost nervous.

“Though I might consider getting you proper flowers if you let me take you on a date?”

Rey gulped. Jess had just asked her out on a date. That meant all the flirting she’d thought she’d noticed definitely was flirting and not just Jess being nice. She looked down at the plant Jess was still holding.

“Sorry I only liked potted flowers.” she said with a smile as she took the flowers. They were very pretty. She wondered how Jess had picked them out. Jess looked like she was about to melt into the floor so Rey decided to answer her question properly. “But I’d love to go on a date with you. Even if you bring me normal flowers.”

Jess’s shoulders relaxed. A smile flooded over her face again and she bit her lip. It made Rey want to lean forward and kiss her. Instead she took a small step back.

“I thought you were going to say no for a moment then.” Jess said.

Rey giggled again. “After the snuggling and the plant jokes?” she teased. “I’d be a fool not to fall for you after that.”

“Ah, so my wooing techniques worked.” Jess pretend to celebrate.

“They certainly did.” Rey agreed.

“So,” Jess rocked on her feet.

“I would invite you in but I’m doing secret things.” Rey said.

Jess cocked her head, “Secret things?”

“Secret things for Saturday.”

“Oh, our dinner party.” Jess remembered.

“Yep, but I can’t tell you what. You’ll have to wait.” Rey joked.

“Well then. I’m looking forward to it.” Jess gave a wide smile. “I’ll see you on Saturday.”

“See you then. And text me when you’re free for our,” Rey gestured between them, “date.”

Jess beamed at the word date. “I will.”

Rey shut the door. When the locked clicked into place she leant against it and let out a loud sigh. It took a moment for her brain to catch up with what happened. The plant in her hands confirmed it. Jessika Pava had asked her out on a date. Rey smiled to herself. She walked back into the kitchen and placed the plant down on the counter where she could see it. As she was cooking her eyes kept wandering back to it’s red flowers. They brought a smile to her face as she mixed the ingredients together. 

Killing someone’s plant wasn’t the best way to start a friendship, but Rey didn’t care. Without the death of that poor little plant it was likely she might have never spoken to Jess. Besides it gave her an excuse to buy Jess flowers for every occasion she could think of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you were wondering Finn is straight up ready to bury a dead body at the beginning!
> 
> Also I highly recommend The Get Down. It's on Netflix!
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you want to talk about Reyva (or have any prompts) I'm on [tumblr](https://willsdarcy.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written Star Wars before and I know every little about the fandom version of Jessika (or of the extended star wars universe). I hope I didn't make any epically awful blunders!
> 
> I'm considering a second part from Rey's point of view as well.
> 
> Let me know if you liked it (here or on [tumblr](https://willsdarcy.tumblr.com)). Thanks for reading!


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